As Hot As Ice
by ricetard
Summary: Katara breaks Zuko's birthday gift he spent five months making for his uncle...right after Mai breaks up with him. Women are stupid. Zutara. Oneshot. Fluff.


_water & fire never got along well…_

"I am not talking to you," Zuko said angrily, storming away. Behind him, Katara was trailing after, the shattered glass in her hands. A distraught look was on her face, and she very pointedly shouted,

"But _Zuko_! I didn't _mean_ to!"

"You broke the one-of-a-kind glass teaset that I specifically made! By myself! For _him_!" Zuko snarled, whipping around to look at her. "I don't care if you're _sorry_! That took me _months_ to make!"

"Well could you try making it again?" Katara pleaded. "I don't _know_, Zuko, I'm _really_ sorry!"

"'Sorry''s not going to do anything! At this rate, it's just going to piss me off even more," he snapped, looking like he might hit her. "What _else_ am I supposed to get for my uncle, huh? Bags of tea?"

Behind their argument, Aang, Sokka and Toph looked slightly guilty. Not that Zuko or Katara really noticed.

Katara looked even more upset. "But—"

"You know, honestly, all this stupid post-war stuff is just…_stupid_!" Zuko turned around to address all of them. "I mean, okay, yeah, we defeated my father. And we _finally_ get along. This doesn't mean you have to hang out with me all the time! And who invited you to my uncle's birthday party anyways?"

"He did," replied Toph.

"And _you're_ the one who's been hanging out with _us_ since the beginning. I don't really know what you're whining about," said Aang thoughtfully.

"Really, Zuko, you're being stupid," Katara gave him a very pointed look. "I think whatever anger emotion you're feeling right now is going to your head. You're acting irrational."

"_I'm_ being irrational? _You're_ the one who broke the birthday present for my uncle and now you're giving me backsass! I think the one being irrational here is you!" he shouted furiously.

"Fire and water. Never really did get along," Sokka observed from the side. Both Zuko and Katara turned on him this time.

"SHUT _UP_!"

"Well why are _you_ so mad at _me_? You're overreacting!" Katara tried to insist. Zuko seriously looked like he was going to murder her.

"_Overreacting_? It's my _uncle's birthday_!" he stressed. "I'm reacting just _fine_! And I don't need any of your happy emotional inspirational speeches or anything about this! I just want my uncle's present back!"

"How _did_ you manage to break it anyways, Katara?" Toph asked curiously from the side. "I had never considered you to be a destructive type of person."

"That's because I'm _not_ a destructive type of person!" Katara said defensively. "I am a perfectly normal, calm and _stable_ girl. Unlike Mister Hothead over here." She glowered at Zuko.

"Stop doing that!" he growled, mostly because he thought her glare was quite cute (but no, he wasn't going to say that—though, she _should_ stop doing it. It usually distracted him from more important things at hand, like their arguments). "Why are _you_ behaving like _you're_ mad at me?! I didn't even _do_ anything to you!"

"You're yelling at me _way_ more than necessary!" she replied, equally aggravated.

"Well you _deserve_ to be yelled at! You're a _stupid_, _clumsy_ and-and—" gorgeous "—idiotic girl! Not some normal calm, _stable_ one!" He scowled daggers at her. She merely returned the glare.

"Well if I'm so stupid and clumsy and idiotic, then I guess I won't talk to you!" she responded, turning her back away purposefully with a little "hmph." Zuko did the same. Stupid girls.

Girls _were_ stupid, really.

Especially since Mai had broken up with him earlier that day. On his _uncle's birthday_.

Really.

Katara had come in to comfort him, but that was when she had shattered the glass-blown handmade teaset. Which only proved his theory of the idiocy of girls even further. Though he did have to admit that the dress she was wearing especially for today (old Fire Nation clothing, in honor of said uncle's birthday) was rather nice. But he didn't let that distract him. Nor the fact that she actually _cared_ about him, more than Mai (seeing as _she_ wasn't the one broke up with him—Katara, that is).

Because Katara was stupid. Yeah.

"Uh, guys?" Aang said, glancing between them. "Even if _you_ two are gonna stay in here forever, we're not. So um. We're gonna go now. But we'll come over when the party starts."

"Fine!" Katara said defiantly. Zuko scowled more and echoed her words, and, if possibly, louder.

"Fine!"

Several other footsteps were heard when they left the small temple, and the other two—Zuko and Katara, of course—stood there in silence for a bit, not quite saying anything. Well, they weren't going to until one of them caved in and apologized to the other first. But they were both rather stubborn people. So it could be a while. Or, at least, that's what Zuko thought.

But finally, Katara, who seemed to be less persistent than Zuko thought, seemed to sigh a little bit. Zuko could hear her shift and turn around to face his back. "I'm sorry," her voice said, her tone sincere. Zuko wasn't sure to take her seriously or not.

"You should be," he replied, his voice dripping with acid.

"Well I _am_! Can't you learn to appreciate me every once in a while?" Katara said, clearly offended.

"Well, what's there to appreciate?" Zuko turned his body around himself and positively glowered at her. "When my girlfriend breaks up with me and then some other girl whom I've always kind of liked just comes in and breaks something that took me five months to make?! Where's the good in that, huh?"

"Honestly Zuko? I just think you need to calm down. And why did Mai break up with you anyways?" Katara moved in closer to him, whether he liked it or not, and seemed to want to know how he felt. Despite her stubbornness and tendency to hold a grudge, she always wanted to care. That was a trait that Zuko always admired about her. Not like he was going to let _that_ distract him from their current dispute either.

"_I_ dunno," he said. "Something about being too-short tempered and bossy or something. How am I supposed to know? Girls are psychotic."

"No we're not. Obviously you just don't know how to deal with them. Besides, you being short-tempered and bossy is just something you've _always_ been. You'd think that Mai would have gotten used to it by now," Katara indicated.

Zuko snorted. "Apparently not."

"Well." Katara looked down, seeming a bit embarrassed. "If it makes you feel any better, _I_ kind of like it. It makes our fights more entertaining."

"You're saying you _like_ it when we fight?" Zuko asked, raising his eyebrows, though he always liked them too. Plus, just…_talking_ like this now rather than shouting and yelling made him calm down and realize how idiotic he was being. (Though part of him was still biased to his own irrational side, but that's usually how internal conflicts go).

Katara shrugged. "I can't say I _don't_. Though I really am terribly sorry for breaking your uncle's teaset." She looked behind them self-consciously and then at the still-broken glass in her hands (which had made her bleed before, but obviously she just healed them). She also didn't seem to mind repeating herself for about the umpteenth time, which made Zuko feel guilty. He sighed.

"Yeah, well. I guess I'll just like, write him a card or something," he said rationally. "But you…_really_ like me? Differently than Mai?" It was a weird concept. He had never really considered her before.

She nodded. "Better than Mai, I think. I'll always love your short-tempered bossiness. Plus, at Ba Sing Se, I got to see another side of you. I just…well, maybe I never really hated you. I just had a grudge against you for quite a bit." She blushed, chuckling a bit to herself. Zuko smirked and took a step closer to her.

"Well _if_ it helps, I don't think I ever hated you either. And you look really nice in your outfit today."

"Is that the line you use to get all the ladies?" she teased, though obviously she had gotten the message, considering her face was now an insane shade of pink. This made Zuko smile.

"Only some," he said, his grin growing wider.

And then he kissed her lightly on the lips, and she kissed him back, with only a small amount of room to react. But it was nice. Slightly awkward, but comfortable and _nice_. And…right. Like, perfect. Zuko pulled away, amazed.

"Wow," he said. Katara giggled.

"Yeah. Wow. I didn't ever think…I didn't think _that_ would happen," she said. "And you just broke up with Mai…"

"You know, I don't really think that's a problem. You're not a rebound," Zuko smiled, putting an arm around her. "I think it was that I didn't' realize I _didn't_ like her. Because all my feelings for true love…they were always for you."

"Oh, that's so cheesy." Katara smacked him, but she blushed again so Zuko just took the gesture as acceptable, and the grin didn't leave his face.

"But it's true. And that's what matters, right?" he said. "Plus, it'll help guilt you into getting something for me to give to my uncle since you broke my _other_ one."

Katara shot him a look.

"You don't mean that."

"Oh yes I do."

"Hothead meanie."

"Klutzy idiot."


End file.
